If Rematch Means Shootout, U.S. Is Ready

Japan's Saki Kumagai (left) scoring the winning penalty against American goalkeeper Hope Solo during the shootout of their Women's World Cup final in 2011.Credit
Thomas Bohlen/Reuters

LONDON — One year after the Women’s World Cup final, so much is the same for Japan and the United States. They have the same stars. They have the same expectations. They are the two best teams, despite what the FIFA rankings say.

On Thursday, they will meet again, at Wembley Stadium in the Olympic gold medal match, and no one would be surprised if the game looks like a rerun. The teams are so similar to the way they were last year that there is every chance for another set of extra-time periods and every possibility of another penalty-kick shootout.

If that happens, though, the United States is ready to try something different. After that wrenching 3-1 shootout defeat last summer in Germany, the Americans’ coaching staff and players analyzed their approach to what is often known as soccer’s version of the lottery, searching for anything that might give them an edge if they have to do it again.

“There’s definitely an element of luck to it — you have to appeal to the soccer gods and all that,” midfielder Megan Rapinoe said. “But I don’t think it’s all about that. There are things you can do. It’s not a coin flip.”

Goalkeeper Hope Solo, in particular, has learned from the experience last year. Solo, who is known as one of the better goalkeepers against penalty kicks, has lived with regrets over the shootout against Japan, when she said she relied on a gimmicky theory as opposed to trusting her gut.

Solo said she and some of the team’s coaches essentially settled on a strategy before the shootout began. After a victory over Brazil in a shootout in the quarterfinal, Solo and her position coach, Paul Rogers, discussed data they had found that showed a majority of players shot toward the left-hand side of the goal on penalty kicks.

Instead of having Solo try to guess which side each shooter was going to aim for — by quickly analyzing her history, body language or run-up — Solo and the coaches decided she would simply move to her right on every shot, figuring chances were good she would be correct and make a save several times.

In theory, it seemed like a good idea. But upon reflection, Solo said, it did not feel comfortable to her. Her movements in the shootout were tentative, as if she did not fully believe in the plan. She did make one save, but that was not enough to make up for her teammates’ misses.

On Japan’s final two kicks, the shooters went left, so Solo had moved in the correct direction, but she did so with such hesitancy that she was not able to make either save.

“Looking back, I remember going to the first one not with a lot of confidence because I had a feeling she was going to go to my left,” Solo said. “As soon as I leaned right, she went left. I always wanted to do that, but when I actually did it, it didn’t feel right.”

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The United States coach, Pia Sundhage, was also self-critical after the defeat. Sundhage said this week that in the past she had delegated responsibility for planning free-kick plays — including penalties — to Rogers. Last summer, that meant she deferred to Rogers when it came to selecting the order of the American shooters, and she also stayed mostly quiet when it came to the coaches’ last words of instruction before the shootout.

“I did not want to change what had worked in the match against Brazil,” she said. “But this was a different situation, and I needed to be different.”

Against Brazil, Sundhage said, the United States had rallied to tie the score and reach the shootout. The Americans had the momentum and their confidence was high; little needed to be said to get them in the right mental place for the penalties.

But in the final, it was the Americans who lost leads on the way to the shootout. They then went out and missed three of four penalties. “I needed to get involved and tell them that they needed to be calm and trust themselves,” Sundhage said. “I did not do that, but this time I know.”

Sundhage added that she did her best to have the players simulate shootout situations, but that it was difficult — if not impossible — to replicate the intensity of the moment. When the United States plays scrimmages, it often asks the other team to have a shootout afterward. At practice, Sundhage will sometimes organize formal shootouts or have the players do it individually at the end of regimented training.

Brandi Chastain, who converted perhaps the most famous penalty in American history, against China in the 1999 World Cup final (and followed it with a memorable celebration), recalled how she and her teammates would often play penalty-kick baseball after practices.

Each player got three outs per inning, with goals being hits, saves being outs and shots off the post that rebounded back into play counting as neither. “They were foul balls,” said Chastain. “They weren’t outs because we figured there was a chance someone could score on a rebound.”

When the time came for Chastain to take her big kick, she used her less-dominant left foot because she had been working on it in the weeks before the match. She had never taken a left-footed penalty kick in competition before, she said this week, but it made sense to her in the moment. “I had practiced that way so much,” she said, “I was more confident that way in the game.”

Such are the quirks of the penalty shootout. Suggestions for potential alternatives — including continuing to play the match but reducing the number of players on each side — are often bandied about, but for now at least, the shootout is all there is.

So when teams as evenly matched as the United States and Japan meet in a showpiece final — particularly a repeat one like this — everyone must be prepared for the possibility of penalties.

“Mentally, your mind can start to play tricks on you,” said Carli Lloyd, who made her penalty against Brazil but missed one against Japan. “But you have to be strong. You have to know you have done it before and so you absolutely can do it again.”

2012 LONDON

A version of this article appears in print on August 9, 2012, on page B13 of the New York edition with the headline: If Rematch Means Shootout, U.S. Is Ready. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe